Meet the Team

Sandra Kim is the Founder and President of Everyday Feminism. Launched in July 2012, Everyday Feminism has become one of the most popular feminist digital media sites in the world, with millions monthly visitors from over 150 countries. EF takes an intersectional approach to feminism, addressing the daily issues people face around gender, sexuality, race, class, and more, and how we can create change in our lives and our communities. As a person with multiple marginalized identities, Sandra is committed to an intersectional feminism that focuses on personal and social liberation for everyone. She’s also pioneering a values-driven self-governing organizational approach and an innovative online business model to make this work holistically and financially sustainable for activists.

Derek Quo Ellerman – Interim Executive Director

Derek Quo Ellerman is the Interim Executive Director of Everyday Feminism. He has spent the last two decades starting up and helping lead social change organizations, most recently Resist Media. Derek is a queer, biracial Buddhist, survivor, and wounded healer. Most of his work now focuses around trauma-informed healing, grief, and self-love.

Sheena Wadhawan – Deputy Director

Sheena is the Deputy Director of Everyday Feminism. She has spent the last decade as a community lawyer, activist, and advocate working alongside communities to build power and fight for systemic change. Sheena has experience in the movements for economic justice, housing, civil rights, education, and immigrants’ rights. She is a multilingual immigrant, person of color, mother, sister, daughter, and survivor. Sheena is committed to being a joyful warrior and leading with love.

Michelle Zenarosa – Managing Editor

Michelle Zenarosa is the Managing Editor for Everyday Feminism. She’s a Los Angeles-based media-maker committed to building alternative and vibrant community media platforms. She has worked as a journalist and editor for over 15 years at various media outlets that include national news sites like Fusion, local newspapers, newswires, industry trade magazines and non-profit organizations. She also teaches journalism at the university level. She has been a facilitator for storytelling by youth in Los Angeles, Washington, DC, and Palestine. Michelle received her bachelors in journalism with a minor in peace studies at Cal State University Long Beach and her masters in public affairs journalism at the University of Maryland, College Park, where she served as the Howard Simons fellow for the Washington Post. Her work has been featured in the LA Weekly and in independent magazines like Left Turn, $pread, Make/Shift, MaximumRocknRoll and LOUDmouth. Michelle is an ex-punk, a pop culture and food maniac, and a self-identified caring grouch.

Ludmila Leiva – Deputy Editor & Creative Strategist

Ludmila Leiva is the Deputy Editor & Creative Strategist for Everyday Feminism. She’s a Brooklyn-based Latina writer, editor, illustrator, and activist dedicated to exploring diasporic Latinx identity, race, gender, and sexuality. Holding a B.A. in Political Science with Gender and Sexuality Studies, Ludmila spent years working in grassroots activism, including as a domestic violence and sexual assault counselor and a youth workshop facilitator. In 2015, she came to journalism and media in search of more creative means of affecting social change. Ludmila is committed to anti-oppressive work, particularly the empowerment of [queer] women and femmes of color. Her writing, illustrations, and translations have been published across several media platforms including Broadly, WIRED, Vice, and The New York Times Women in the World. You can find Ludmila on Twitter and see more of her work on her website.

Marina Watanabe – Social Media Manager

Marina Watanabe is the Social Media Manager for Everyday Feminism. She is also a vlogger, blogger, overenthusiastic tweeter, and frustratingly close to being a college graduate (like, so close.) Marina identifies as mixed-race Japanese-American, a bisexual woman of color, a feminist, and a Gryffinclaw. She is particularly passionate about speaking of issues of sexual harassment and rape culture, overlapping intersectional identities, and fighting mental health stigma. She is currently majoring in Women’s Studies and Communications at Sacramento State and hopes to continue using social media as a tool to discuss and raise awareness for feminist and social justice issues. Aside from creating video content for Everyday Feminism, she hosts a YouTube series called Feminist Fridays that explores the social, the political, and the media from a feminist and intersectional perspective – and uses a lot of F-words. She also runs a Tumblr called Everyday Harassment that serves as a safe space for women and members of marginalized groups to share their stories and educate others on the nature and frequency of sexual harassment. Check out her Tumblr, or follow her on Twitter @marinashutup. Check out her videos here.

Yelky Perez – Administrative Coordinator

Yelky is the Administrative Coordinator for Everyday Feminism. She is a freelancer virtual assistant with experience in the legal and technology field. She is an activist at heart who is passionate about women and immigrant’s rights. She attended Baruch College in New York and graduated top of her class.

Deonna Anderson – Course Support Specialist

Deonna Anderson is the Course Support Specialist at Everyday Feminism. She is an Oregon-based freelance print, digital and radio reporter with experience covering city government, social issues and equitable economic development. In 2017, she was an equitable cities fellow at Next City and freelanced as a fact checker for New York Magazine’s website. Deonna is an alum of the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, where she concentrated in urban reporting. She’s also interned at NYMag.com and The Marshall Project, covering the criminal justice system.

Alaina Leary – Social Media Associate & Reporting Fellow

Alaina Leary is an editor, book publicist, and activist from Boston, Massachusetts. She’s a social media editor for the nonprofit We Need Diverse Books, and has an MA in publishing from Emerson College. Her work has been published in The New York Times, The Boston Globe Magazine, Teen Vogue, The Washington Post, Vice, Cosmopolitan, The Rumpus, and more. Twitter/Instagram: @alainaskeys.

Ngozi Ize Ahantou – Reporting Fellow

Ngozi IzE Ahanotu is an author, writer, and business consultant who specializes in reporting on women’s sexual health and wellness, alternative education options, and financial independence. A new voice dedicated to empowering women of color through refreshing profiles and the application of historical traditions to current lifestyles, her independent news work is a call-to-action for readers everywhere. Find more of her work at ngoziiahanotu.com.

Zainab Karim – Reporting Fellow

Zainab Karim is a Chicago-based freelance writer. She does most of her writing on her personal blog www.bealestreetspeaks.com. Aside from writing, she enjoys reading, cooking, and having deep conversations with strangers. Twitter: @fromzeewithlove

Brittany King – Reporting Fellow

Brittany is an independent journalist located in the Midwest where she covers race, gender and politics for national publications. Formerly, she managed social media for brands like Hershey and Anheuser Busch and covered diversity and inclusion issues for higher ed institutions. Currently, she’s a business reporter for the Indianapolis Recorder and a copy editor for FoodBeforeLove.com.

Sezin Koehler – Reporting Fellow

Sezín Koehler is a biracial Sri Lankan American feminist horror novelist whose writings have also been featured on Wear Your Voice Magazine, Bitch, Broadly, The Mary Sue, Ravishly, HuffPost, and more. An adult Third Culture Kid, Sezín has lived in 13 countries and 18 cities around the world, and now calls Lighthouse Point, Florida home. You can find her Tweeting about politics, Facebooking about writing and culture, and Instagramming her growing collection of art and tattoos.

Maya Lewis – Reporting Fellow

Maya Lewis is a 20-something Brooklynite, by way of Maryland. She spends her time writing about things she believes are interesting and finding ways to trick people into reading them.

Wendy Lu – Reporting Fellow

Wendy is a national reporter based in New York City, with a focus on health, politics, and social issues. She is a disabled Chinese American woman and a graduate of Columbia Journalism School. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, Teen Vogue, Bustle, Columbia Journalism Review and more. Follow her on Twitter at @wendyluwrites or visit her website at wendyluwrites.com.

Ixty Quintanilla – Reporting Fellow

Itxy Quintanilla is a multimedia journalist telling nuanced stories through writing, photography, film, and audio. She was born and raised in Los Angeles, CA and received her B.A. in English and Art at the University of California, Santa Barbara. You can find her snacking on trail mix and daydreaming to the sound of Frank Ocean. Follow her on Twitter @itx_yagirl

Ayesha Sharma – Reporting Fellow

Ayesha Sharma is a non-binary South Asian scholar and artist continually negotiating a relationship with themselves and their communities through practices of decolonization. They are most interested in literal and symbolic reclamation as an art practice, and investing themselves in community care. Ayesha has written for the Urban Democracy Lab and is published in ANTYAJAA: Indian Journal of Women and Social Change.

Sophia Stephens – Reporting Fellow

Sophia Stephens is a freelance writer, journalist, speaker, educator and advocate based in Seattle, where she/they work with local and national organizations including The Stranger, Kids & Race, Seattle Theatre Group, Distinction Music Management, Youth Radio, and Northwest Asian Weekly. Sophia’s work primarily engages with issues of radical intersectional social justice, politics, and popular culture, but they will always write a good story about their cat for you if you ask. If interested in connecting, you can find Sophia on Instagram and Twitter: @sophia_akiko.

Katie Tastrom – Reporting Fellow

Katie Tastrom is an activist, writer, and lawyer. She writes about living with chronic illnesses, disability justice, fatness, parenting, queerness, bodies, and other stuff. She lives in Syracuse, NY with her four kids and amazing partner. She also watches a lot of TV. You can find more at katietastrom.com or follow her on Twitter at @katietastrom.